He arrived home to a hero’s welcome. Large crowds gathered, waving flags. Hiroo Onoda was lean and malnourished, but looked smart in his blue pinstriped suit, as he smiled and waved to those in attendance. His father and mother, now aged 86 and 88, respectively, were on hand to greet him, in spite of limited mobility.
In a press conference held at a hotel near the airport, Onoda spoke humbly of his time in the military. A reporter asked what he had been thinking of during the decades that passed.
“Nothing,” he answered, “but accomplishing my duty.”
The media spoke of “Onoda Spirit” – a marked contrast the kind of materialism that had developed as Japan shifted its focus in those post-war years. “Onoda has shown us that there is much more in life than just material affluence and selfish pursuits,” a newspaper gushed about the Lieutenant. “There is the spiritual aspect, something we may have forgotten.”
Contemporary press accounts noted a “nervousness” in his speech. He sometimes slurred his words – a fact chalked up to the two years that had passed he had spoken to another human. Twenty years prior, Corporal Shōichi Shimada died in a fight with local police. His eldest daughter wept as she presented a large photo to Onoda, who bowed deeply, visibly shaking.
Another shootout ended in the death of Kinshichi Kozuka. The Private First Class was the penultimate man standing from Onoda’s company, dying at the hands of local authorities two years before Onoda’s return. The two had held out together for 28 years on the Lubang Island archipelago in the Philippines.
A graduate of a the Nakano School for military intelligence, Onoda was dispatched to the archipelago in December 1944, as Japan hoped to stem the tides of a war effort that seemed increasingly hopeless. As a student of guerilla warfare and covert operations, the young soldier was tasked with sabotaging harbors and airstrips ahead of the allies’ arrival.
The Americans landed in February, making quick work of the occupying foces. Evacuations commenced, but surrender was not an option. “It may take three years, it may take five,” commanding Major Yoshimi Taniguchi told the remaining troops, “but whatever happens we’ll come back for you.”
The promise would take three decades to fulfill. Onoda and three others made their way to the island’s jungle, awaiting further contact. In October, the men discovered a leaflet left behind by a local, reading, "The war ended on 15 August. Come down from the mountains!" The men dismissed it as American propaganda. No matter how dire things might have looked, it simply wasn’t possible that Japan had surrendered.
The soldiers built huts from bamboo found in the jungles. They killed cows and stole farmers’ rice for food. They maintained their uniforms and firearms as well as possible. The quartet ran afoul of local law enforcement numerous times over the years, resulting in more than 30 deaths.
In late 1949, Private First Class Yuichi Akatsu abandoned the others, convinced that subsequent leaflets dropped on the island and Japanese radio broadcasts were more than simple American lies. After surviving alone in the jungle for another six months, he surrendered to the Philippine military in early-1950. His betrayal only strengthened the resolve of the remaining three men.
Japan sent search parties into the mountains in hopes of extracting the remaining solders, but the missions came up short until the 1974 arrival of Norio Suzuki. Following news of Kozuka’s death, the explorer set out to travel the world, with a stated mission of locating, "Lieutenant Onoda, a panda and the Abominable Snowman, in that order.”
It was four days before he accomplished the first.
"This hippie boy Suzuki came to the island to listen to the feelings of a Japanese soldier,” Onoda recounted, decades later. “Suzuki asked me why I would not come out.” While the two became friendly, the soldier still refused to surrender until a superior officer issued direct orders. Working as a bookstore clerk, several decades after surrendering, Major Taniguchi returned to the island with orders.
1. In accordance with the Imperial command, the Fourteenth Area Army has ceased all combat activity.
2. In accordance with military Headquarters Command No. A-2003, the Special Squadron of Staff's Headquarters is relieved of all military duties.
3. Units and individuals under the command of Special Squadron are to cease military activities and operations immediately and place themselves under the command of the nearest superior officer. When no officer can be found, they are to communicate with the American or Philippine forces and follow their directives
Dressed in what remained of his uniform, Onoda presented his sword to Ferdinand Marcos. The President of the Philippines pardoned the soldier and returned the weapon. The local farmers returned to work – finally unafraid of armed men living in the mountains, while Onoda returned to a country he no longer recognized.
In the intervening 29 years, Japan had undergone a record period of economic recovery. “Some dreams are best not to wake up from,” he wrote years later in a memoir.
Not long after locating Onoda, Suzuki found his wild panda. He also claimed to have spotted a yeti in July of the following year, but could present no proof. The explorer died in an avalanche 11 years later, upon returning to the Himalayas to find better evidence of the Abominable Snowman.
Sources:
Hiroo Onoda: Japanese soldier who took three decades to surrender, dies https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/17/hiroo-onoda-japanese-soldier-dies
Marcos Extols Japanese Straggler, Returns Sword https://www.nytimes.com/1974/03/12/archives/marcos-extols-japanese-straggler-returns-sword.html
Soldier's Return From 30 Years In Jungle Stirs Japanese Deeply https://www.nytimes.com/1974/03/13/archives/soldiers-return-from-30-years-in-jungle-stirs-japanese-deeply.html
The Japanese Soldier Who Kept on Fighting https://www.history.co.uk/shows/lost-gold-of-wwii/articles/the-japanese-soldier-who-kept-on-fighting-after-ww2-had-finished